Mere hours after her story was published in this newspaper Rose Park-Bennett (known previously as Kavita Singh) got her heart’s desire: she received confirmation that her two sons, who were adopted after spending nine years in state care, were alive and doing well.
“It is like a whole ton load a weight come off of me shoulder. You can’t begin to understand how I feel. This is what I was hoping for all this time,” a sobbing Park-Bennett told the Sunday Stabroek via phone.
It was last week Sunday that this newspaper published Park-Bennett’s story of how her sons—Krishnan (known as Mickey) DeCunha and Kevin DeCunha—were adopted from the C I Children’s Home where they had been placed by the state. Their mother had taken them to the then Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.
The woman had related that at that time she was fleeing an abusive husband who was addicted to hard drugs and with whom she had started a relationship when she was just 13 and he was 22. She told the harrowing tale of being abused as a child by the hands of her father and stepmother and seeking refuge at the home of her then husband’s mother. It was then that the adult man became intimate with her and they subsequently had four sons. One later died under questionable circumstances, one is still in her care, but two were placed in state care where they remained for nine years. During this time, Park-Bennett said, she was working towards owning a home to accommodate them.
When with her husband Jermaine Bennett she finally got a home and turned up for her children, she was told they had been adopted and taken to the US. The Child Care and Protection Agency said notices were published for both her and the children’s father. She said she saw none.
In desperation, she told her story to this newspaper, expressing her love for her sons and wanting to know if they were alive and well.
Those questions have been answered as within hours of the story being published, a woman reached out to her on Facebook and related that she was the adopted mother of her children. Even before responding, Park-Bennett scrolled through the woman’s photographs and immediately recognised her sons even though Mickey is now 20 and Kevin 18.
They still have the first names but carry the last names of their adopted parents.
“The woman call me on Facebook after, and me and she talk for like a whole hour and she tell me how Mickey does always say he want know about he mother and how he get more brother and sister. She tell me how dem so loving and how dem is good boys, but dem does not really talk plenty about dem past…,” she told this newspaper shortly after she spoke to the woman.
The woman related that she learnt of the story when it was shared with her on Facebook by some of the children in the home where the brothers once lived as they knew the boys and even she wanted to find their biological mother.
Park-Bennett said the woman stated that it was her biological son who encouraged her to adopt the brothers whom he met while visiting orphanages in Guyana. She did so and has not regretted it, as according to Park-Bennett she said the brothers are “lovely boys.”
However, the woman advised her that she first had to speak to the brothers and let them decide whether they wanted to communicate with their mother.
“She tell me how she would never keep dem away from me and how now they have two mothers who love them,” the woman shared.
She waited anxiously and then came news no mother wants to hear. She was told that the boys indicated that they were not ready to speak to her. Sobbing, she told this newspaper that it was hard for her to accept that the boys did not want to speak to her as she just wanted to hear their voices and tell them how much she loved them.
So, she was overjoyed two days later when the boys, through their adopted mother, spoke to her.
“Girl you don’t know how this make me feel. Kevin voice it sound just so the same when I talk to he here in Guyana. But Mickey, he voice sound more deep. I talk to me sons and dem tell me how dem love me and I tell dem I love dem,” the woman said between sobs.
“I ask dem to forgive me for putting dem in a home. They say is nothing to forgive how dem know it was not me fault. I feel so much better now just to know I talk to dem and how dem alive and happy. I thankful. I don’t know when I would see them but I just thankful and happy dem alive…”
Park-Bennett said she wants to work on building a relationship with her sons and hope they can get to know their two brothers and one sister. One son shares the same father as the boys, but he was not placed in a home since his mother was unaware she was pregnant when she fled the abusive relationship.
The woman had told this newspaper that since she met her husband her life changed for the better. Now she is just happy to continue to build a relationship with her two sons.
